05 JUN 2009 _______________________________________ *Investigators confirm airspeed indication problem on Air France A330 *Air France jet's flight-control system under scrutiny *French minister warns about alleged Airbus debris *Airbus warns airlines after Air France crash *Air France Flight 447: A detailed meteorological analysis *NTSB Expands Hearing On US Airways A-320 Ditching Accident *DHC-6 Twin Otter Landing Accident (Maldives) *JTSB issues report on Boeing 767 landing mishap *Holiday plane dodged military jet *FAA approves AA safety programs for mechanics, pilots *Police: Handgun handed off at airport, gets on plane *Macau to cooperate on international aviation safety *Airports urged to study bird-strike risks **************************************** Investigators confirm airspeed indication problem on Air France A330 French investigators have this morning confirmed that automatic messages transmitted by the Air France Airbus A330 lost four days ago show that the aircraft was experiencing conflicting airspeed information from its on-board sensors. The brief statement from investigation agency BEA follows the issuance by Airbus of a telex to operators reminding them of immediate actions to be taken by crews in the event of unreliable airspeed indications. It says: "Many more or less accurate or attempted explanations of the accident are currently circulating. The BEA reminds one that in such circumstances it is best to avoid any hasty interpretation or speculation based on fragmentary and unvalidated information." At this stage of the investigation, it says, the only elements established are: * The presence near the planned route of the aircraft over the Atlantic of signifcant convective cells characteristic of the equatorial regions * From the automatic messages transmitted by the aircraft, the inconsistency of the different measured speeds. The Airbus telex states: "The route of the aircraft was crossing a tropical multicell convective area at the time of the accident. Failure/maintenance messages have been transmitted automatically from the aircraft to the airline maintenance centre. "The above mentioned messages indicate that there was an inconsistency between the different measured airspeeds. Therefore, and without prejudging the final outcome of the investigation, the data available leads Airbus to remind operators what are the applicable operational recommendations in case of unreliable airspeed indication." It then provides operations manuals references for the entire Airbus-fielded fleet of aircraft. A 2001 airworthiness directive previously mandated operators to ensure that aircraft flight manuals were updated with the procedures in the event of unreliable airspeed indications following a series of such events on the type. It indicated that severe icing of the pitot tubes or physical loss of the radome, which additionally requires an increase in power to counter the drag, were potential causes. Sources in Brazil familiar with the investigative work say that icing is a key focus of investigation. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news *************** Air France jet's flight-control system under scrutiny Automated messages before the crash point to a failure of the system that flies the plane most of the time, experts say. Weather looks like less of a factor. A sophisticated flight-control system that relies on electronic instruments and computers came under growing scrutiny Thursday as investigators tried to unravel the mysterious crash of an Air France Airbus 330 into the Atlantic. A series of messages sent automatically by the jet moments before it plunged into the ocean late Sunday with 228 passengers and crew members aboard has raised speculation that the crash might have involved a malfunction of the automated system that flies the plane most of the time. One of the messages reported that one of the plane's navigational control units had failed and that, almost simultaneously, the autopilot system had disengaged. The sequence of events forced the crew of Flight 447 to fly the jet manually, a difficult task on an Airbus traveling at high altitude near its maximum speed, aviation experts said. Any significant change in airspeed could have caused the plane to lose lift or stability, both potentially deadly conditions. Meanwhile, new analysis of the weather in the vicinity at the time of the crash appears to cast doubt on earlier reports that the plane encountered severe thunderstorms, lightning and wind gusts. Though there were storms, they were almost certainly less intense than those sometimes encountered above the United States, and lightning was at least 150 miles away, said Greg Forbes, severe-weather expert for the Weather Channel. Forbes said an examination of weather data for Sunday, including satellite images, indicated updrafts of perhaps 20 mph, far from the initial reports of 100 mph. "I wouldn't expect it to be enough to break apart the plane," Forbes said. Though experts generally agreed Thursday that weather alone did not explain the crash, USC aviation safety expert Michael Barr said the investigation was still wide open. "You can never disregard any possibility until you can prove what happened," Barr said. "The key here is to determine what the crew could have done after the initial event. Or was there nothing they could have done and they were just along for the ride?" Air France executives said the plane had sent out a series of messages indicating technical failures, confirming news reports in Brazil and data that U.S. aviation experts had already gained access to. A series of serious electronic breakdowns occurred on the Airbus over a four-minute period before the jet plunged into the sea, said Robert Ditchey, an aeronautical engineer, pilot and former airline executive. The sequence started with an autopilot failure and a loss of the air data inertial reference unit, a system of gyroscopes and electronics that provides information on speed, direction and position. That system has been involved in two previous incidents that caused Airbus jetliners to plunge out of control, though the pilots were able to recover. The automated messages then indicate that a fault occurred in one of the computers for the major control surfaces on the rear of the plane. Such a failure would have compounded the problems, particularly if the pilots were flying through even moderate turbulence. The last message indicates that multiple failures were occurring, including pressurization of the cabin. Such a message would have reflected either a loss of the plane's pressurization equipment or a breach of the fuselage, resulting in rapid decompression. All of these issues would have made the plane difficult to control. When cruising at high altitude, a plane must fly within a fairly small window of speed, said Robert Breiling, an aviation safety expert in Florida. If speed drops even slightly, the plane can lose lift. If the speed is too high, it causes instability over the control surfaces. "Flying a big jetliner at high altitude without autopilot, you have your hands full," Breiling said. Ditchey said the Airbus software would have left the crew with a very small margin of error, where even minor buffeting could have boosted the risk of losing control. "As they got into a degraded regime, they probably got into a bigger and bigger pickle," Ditchey said. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-brazil-crash5-2009jun05, 0,6741218.story **************** French minister warns about alleged Airbus debris PARIS (AP) - France's transportation minister said Friday that French forces have found no signs of the Airbus A330 airplane that vanished over the Atlantic and urged "extreme prudence" about suspected debris taken from the ocean. Dominique Bussereau said he regretted that an announcement by Brazilian teams that they had recovered plane debris from Air France flight 447 turned out to be false. The Brazilian air force announced Thursday afternoon that a helicopter plucked an airplane cargo pallet from the sea that came the Air France flight, but then said six hours later that it was not from the Airbus. "French authorities have been saying for several days that we have to be extremely prudent," Bussereau told France's RTL radio. "Our planes and naval ships have seen nothing." Bussereau said the search must continue and stressed that the priority was finding the flight recorders. The plane went down Sunday night with 228 people on board in the world's worst aviation disaster since 2001. France's defense minister and the Pentagon have said there were no signs that terrorism was involved. Brazil's defense minister said the possibility was never considered. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, speaking Thursday in Rio de Janeiro where he attended a Mass honoring the crash victims, said experts had not found signs that would back up a "terrorism theory." "But we cannot discard that for now," he told reporters. "Nothing leads us to believe that there was an explosion, but that doesn't mean there wasn't one." "All the paths are open and we will not give priority to a single premise because that would be immoral," he added. Investigators are looking into whether malfunctions in instruments used to determine airspeed may have led the plane to be traveling at the wrong speed when it encountered turbulence from towering thunderstorms over the Atlantic Ocean. Two aviation industry officials told The Associated Press on Thursday that investigators were studying the possibility that an external probe that measures air pressure may have iced over. The probe feeds data used to calculate air speed and altitude to onboard computers. Another possibility is that sensors inside the aircraft reading the data malfunctioned. If the instruments were not reporting accurate information, the jet could have been traveling too fast or too slow as it hit turbulence from violent thunderstorms, according to the officials. Jetliners need to be flying at just the right speed when encountering violent weather, experts say - too fast and they run the risk of breaking apart. Too slow, and they could lose control. But Gerard Feldzer, a former Air France pilot who flew A330s from 2000 to 2004, cautioned against drawing conclusions about the cause of the crash. "We don't know whether there was depressurization. Perhaps a quarter of an hour later it was resolved and it (the cause of the crash) was something completely different." European planemaker Airbus has sent an advisory to all operators of the A330 reminding them of how to handle the plane in conditions similar to those experienced by Flight 447, which was an Airbus A330-200 version. Airbus spokesman Justin Dubon said the planemaker sent a reminder of A330 operating procedures to airlines late Thursday after the French agency investigating the crash said the doomed flight had faced turbulent weather and inconsistency in the speed readings by different instruments. That meant "the air speed of the aircraft was unclear," Dubon said. In such circumstances, flight crews should maintain thrust and pitch and - if necessary - level off the plane and start troubleshooting procedures as detailed in operating manuals, Dubon said. Meteorologists said the Air France jet entered an unusual storm with 100 mph (160 kph) updrafts that acted as a vacuum, sucking water up from the ocean. The moist air rushed up to the plane's high altitude, where it quickly froze in minus-40 degree temperatures. The updrafts also would have created dangerous turbulence. The jetliner's computer systems ultimately failed, and the plane broke apart likely in midair as it crashed into the Atlantic on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris Sunday night. But investigators will have little to go on until they recover the plane's "black box" flight data and voice recorders, now likely on the ocean floor miles beneath the surface. **************** Airbus warns airlines after Air France crash PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus has warned airline crews to follow standard procedures if they suspect speed indicators are faulty, suggesting that technical malfunction may have played a role in this week's Air France crash. Investigators know from the aircraft's final batch of automated messages, which were sent over a three minute period, that there was an inconsistency between the different measured airspeeds shortly after the plane entered a storm zone. The Airbus telex was sent to customers of its A330s late on Thursday. An industry official said such warnings are only sent if accident investigators have established facts that they consider important enough to pass on immediately to airlines. The recommendation was authorized by the French air accident investigation agency (BEA) looking into the disaster. It has said the speed levels registered by the slew of messages from the plane showed "incoherence." Airbus said its message to clients did not imply that the doomed pilots did anything wrong or that a design fault was in any way responsible for the crash. "This Aircraft Information Telex is an information document that in no way implicates any blame," Justin Dubon, a spokesman for Airbus, said on Friday. The Air France A330-200 was en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris when it suffered a rapid succession of technical problems after hitting turbulence early on Monday and almost certainly plunged into the Atlantic. All 228 people on board died. Brazilian authorities hunting for the plane said on Thursday that flotsam scooped from the sea about 1,100 km (680 miles) northeast of Brazil's coast, was not from the Airbus A330, as previously reported. Searchers have found several debris sites spread out over a 90 km (56 miles) zone and boats in the area are trying to pick it up to ascertain if the plane really did come down there. BLOCKED SENSORS? More than 300 aircraft similar to the missing Air France jet -- an Airbus A330-200 -- are in service worldwide. Investigators do not know if Flight AF 447 was traveling at an incorrect speed as it crossed a storm cluster. An aviation expert, who declined to be named, said the plane's airspeed sensors, called pitot tubes, work on air pressure and might provide incorrect readings if they get obstructed by objects such as ice. The tubes are heated to prevent icing at high altitude and there was no immediate information on what went wrong. If pilots believe the flawed readings are right, they might mistakenly alter their speed, jeopardizing their plane. Airbus said the correct procedure when confronted by unreliable speed indications was to maintain thrust and pitch and start trouble shooting. The Airbus telex has revived a long-standing debate among pilots over whether the Airbus planes are overly complex. "This is a plane that is conceived by engineers for engineers and not always for pilots," Jean-Pierre Albran, a veteran pilot of Boeing 747s, told Le Parisien newspaper. "For example on a 747, the throttle is pushed by hand. You feel it move in turbulence. On recent Airbuses, this throttle is fixed. You look at the dials. You don't feel anything." Aviation experts have speculated that the Air France plane was brought down by a chain of problems, with strong turbulence and stormy weather almost certainly a factor. Officials have played down any suggestion of terrorism. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/05/AR2009060500 843_2.html **************** Air France Flight 447: A detailed meteorological analysis http://www.weathergraphics.com/tim/af447/ **************** NTSB Expands Hearing On US Airways A-320 Ditching Accident This Should Be An 'SRO' NTSB Hearing... There is intense public interest in all of what occurred when a US Airways A-320 ditched in New York's Hudson River. That being the case, the National Transportation Safety Board is releasing additional information about the Board's scheduled public hearing on the January 2009 ditching of the US Airways A-320 into the Hudson River. The hearing, originally scheduled for two days, has been expanded to three. On January 15, 2009, at approximately 3:27 p.m. EST, US Airways flight 1549, an Airbus Industrie A320 bound for Charlotte, North Carolina, incurred multiple bird strikes during its initial departure climb from New York's La Guardia Airport (LGA). The airplane subsequently lost thrust to its engines and ditched in the Hudson River approximately three and a half minutes after striking the birds and about five minutes after leaving LGA. To date, of the five crewmembers and 150 passengers on board, five serious injuries have been reported. The Safety Board will also open the public docket at the start of the hearing. The docket will include investigative group factual reports, interview transcripts, Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) transcripts, Flight Data Recorder (FDR) data and other documents from the investigation. In addition, docket items that will be used as exhibits during the public hearing will be available on the website under "Public Hearings" The hearing, which is part of the Safety Board's efforts to develop all appropriate facts for the investigation, will cover a wide range of safety issues including: Pilot training regarding ditching and forced landings on water. Bird detection and mitigation efforts. Certification standards regarding ditching and forced landings on water for transport-category airplanes. Cabin safety training, emergency procedures and equipment. Certification standards for bird ingestion into transport-category airplane engines. FMI: www.ntsb.gov aero-news.net **************** DHC-6 Twin Otter Landing Accident (Maldives) Status: Preliminary Date: 02 JUN 2009 Time: 10:15 Type: de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 200 Operator: Maldivian Air Taxi Registration: 8Q-MAG C/n / msn: 224 First flight: 1969-03-31 (40 years 2 months) Crew: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 3 Passengers: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 4 Total: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 7 Airplane damage: Written off Location: Halavelhi Resort lagoon (Maldives) Phase: Landing (LDG) Nature: Photo/air-to-air Departure airport: ? Destination airport: ? Narrative: A Maldivian Air Taxi float-equipped DHC-6 Twin Otter was substantially damaged when it suffered an accident while landing on the Halavelhi Resort lagoon. The airplane was reportedly coming in for a landing after taking some photographers on a photo-flight over the resort. (aviation-safety.net) *************** JTSB issues report on Boeing 767 landing mishap The Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB) released their final report of their investigation into the serious incident involving a JAL Boeing 767 at Tokyo-Haneda Airport in June 2005. This incident occurred as the aircraft landed; it is estimated that it bounded on its first touchdown. The nose gear then touched down before the aircraft weight was completely placed on the main landing gears, placing an excessive load on the nose gear, and consequently, damaging the nose gear. Excessive forward operation of the control column was the most significant factor. (JTSB) (aviation-safety.net) **************** Holiday plane dodged military jet A flight carrying holidaymakers back from Turkey to Belfast was forced to take action to keep a safe distance from a military aircraft. Thomson Holidays confirmed the captain of a flight operated on their behalf by Skyservice Airlines from Dalaman was forced to take evasive action. A Thomson spokesperson said:"There are no reported injuries but we are taking the incident extremely seriously." Passengers travelling on the flight said the plane turned on its side. Teresa Kennedy from Andersonstown said passengers were told the emergency manoeuvre was due to a possible collision with a Turkish military plane. "To me it was more like a nose dive - I'll never fly again," she said. PJ Gillespie, from Castlederg, said he thought he was about to die when the plane turned on its side. "One minute I was looking down at the engine, the next minute I was looking up at the engine - the engine was above me," he said. "Everybody was screaming, anybody who wasn't screaming was shouting 'get it back, get it back'. "Eventually the plane levelled out again and the captain came on immediately to say that he was very sorry for what had happened but he had to take urgent evasive action to avoid a collision." The flight continued its journey to Belfast International Airport after the incident on Monday. Thomson said that Skyservice Airlines had completed an air proximity report and a full investigation is now being carried out by them and the Turkish authorities. A spokesperson for Thomson Holidays added they had offered assistance to both Skyservice Airlines and the Turkish authorities with the investigation. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/foyle_and_west/8085045.s tm *************** FAA approves AA safety programs for mechanics, pilots American Airlines announced Thursday that the Federal Aviation Administration has approved its Aviation Safety Action Programs for its mechanics, represented by the Transport Workers Union, and its pilots, represented by the Allied Pilots Association. In the case of the ASAP covering mechanics, the FAA is renewing a program that's been in effect for 11 years. American and TWU jointly announced the FAA's action to extend it another two years. In the pilots' case, the FAA is approving a new program after the previous one, in effect for 14 years, was allowed to lapse last October because the airline and union couldn't agree on its provisions. Under pressure from FAA, the two sides worked out an agreement to start up the program again. American announced the pilot ASAP by itself, rather than in a joint statement with the Allied Pilots Association. ASAP is designed to encourage aviation workers to reveal problems and mistakes that could jeopardize safety. One issue in setting up the programs is deciding to what degree an employee could be disciplined for revealing something that would not have become known except through self disclosure. http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/06/faa-approves-aa-safety-p rogram.html **************** Police: Handgun handed off at airport, gets on plane A U.S. Airways employee was being questioned by authorities this morning after a bag containing an unloaded gun apparently circumvented security and made it onto a plane at Philadelphia International Airport, police said. A passenger waiting to board Flight 1195, destined for Phoenix, noticed another passenger handing a carry-on bag directly to the airline employee, said Officer Christine O'Brien, a Philadelphia police spokeswoman. The bag was not sent through normal secuity screening, O'Brien said, making the waiting passenger suspicious. The passenger alerted officials with the Transportation Security Administration. A TSA employee boarded the plane, located the suspect bag in an overhead compartment, and found that it contained an unloaded handgun, O'Brien said. The incident took place at about 7:40 a.m., she said. The owner of the bag and the U.S. Airways worker were being questioned this morning, police said. The flight, which was originally scheduled to depart at 7:10 a.m., was delayed almost four hours, finally taking off shortly after 11. Instead of arriving in Phoenix at shortly after 9 a.m., it was scheduled to reach Phoenix after 1 p.m., according to USAir's website. Spokespersons for U.S. Airways and the TSA declined to comment on specifics of the incident, saying the FBI had taken over the investigation. "Safety and security is our first and foremost priority in everything we do," Morgan Durrant, senior manager of corporate communications for the airline, said in an e-mailed statement. "We are cooperating with investigators fully and take security considerations very seriously. Further comment right now is not appropriate out of respect to the ongoing investigation." http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/46910087.html *************** Macau to cooperate on international aviation safety The Aviation Safety Office of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and the Civil Aviation Authority of Macau SAR (AACM) yesterday signed the "Aircraft Accident & Incident Investigation Cooperation Arrangement" agreement in Macau. The agreement is aimed so that both parties can build up a long-term cooperative relationship on the issue, enhance investigators' level of professionalism, meet regularly for the exchange of expertise and experiences as well as offer each other technical assistance and the use of facilities in investigations relating to aviation safety. In order to carry out the cooperation, AACM visited the Aviation Safety Office of CAAC in April last year in which both parties discussed cooperation on the issue between the mainland and Macau. Both parties showed a positive attitude in regard to each other's attitude and set about drafting the arrangement. Given the rise in demand for air transport from the Asia Pacific Region to Macau, locally based airlines have invested to expand their aircraft fleet to cope with the development of Macau's aviation industry, resulting in the continuous increase of aircraft movement in Macau. As Macau's aviation history is one of limited operations compared to that of neighbouring regions, the SAR has not accumulated much experience in aircraft accident and incident investigation. As such, AACM said in a statement that it hopes that by establishing regional cooperation or by participating in international seminars or workshops on this subject, Macau investigators will be able to enhance, develop or strengthen their expertise in the management of this field through exchange of experiences with other countries. Also, these types of investigation usually involve high-priced specialised equipment and facilities for gathering and analyzing data, along with the specialized staff that use them. By cooperating with countries that already possess this infrastructure, Macau can avoid making a costly investment that will probably see minimal to no use. In addition to the cooperation with the CAAC's Aviation Safety Office, AACM signed a Declaration of Intent with the Investigation Bureau for Civil Aviation of France on similar cooperation in June 2008, in which both sides agreed to cooperate with each other by offering mutual assistance and the use of facilities, as well as facilitate the exchanges of personnel and technical training in aircraft accident and incident investigation. http://www.macaudailytimesnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id =28402&Itemid=28 *************** Airports urged to study bird-strike risks JETS DOWNED BY BIRDS Jan. 2009: US Airways Flight 1549 hits large birds after takeoff from New York's LaGuardia, lands safely in the Hudson River Sept. 1995: U.S. Air Force plane crashes after hitting geese during takeoff from Elmendorf Air Force Base, Ala., killing 24 Feb. 1973: Learjet crashes after hitting birds during takeoff from Atlanta's DeKalb Peachtree Airport, killing eight Oct. 1960: Eastern Air Lines Flight 375 crashes into Boston Harbor after hitting starlings during takeoff, 62 killed Sources: Bird Strike Committee USA, news reports By Alan Levin, USA TODAY One in three of the nation's commercial airports have failed to take legally required action to reduce the hazards of planes striking birds, a federal review has found. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) found that about 150 airports did not complete studies of wildlife hazards despite their histories of serious collisions between aircraft and birds or other animals, according to four government and industry officials. None would comment publicly before the FAA releases its findings. The studies are the critical first step that airports use to identify bird risks and develop a plan to keep wildlife away from planes. A list of the airports wasn't disclosed because each has to be notified by the FAA before it will be publicly identified as having failed to complete the hazard surveys. The FAA has notified the Airports Council International-North America of its findings and said that it intends to contact airports within days, according Chris Oswald, the group's vice president for safety and operations. The situation shows that airports aren't taking the risks seriously, said Paul Eschenfelder, lead instructor in the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's airport wildlife control program. "It just shows how this problem has been ignored and shuffled to the side by the aviation community over the years," Eschenfelder said. "It takes a catastrophe to focus everybody's attention." Federal regulators have been studying whether large birds have created a growing hazard to planes. A US Airways jet struck a flock of Canada geese on Jan. 15, knocking out both engines and forcing the plane to splash down in New York's Hudson River. The National Transportation Safety Board will begin a two-day hearing starting Tuesday into the accident. The pilots and flight attendants were hailed as heroes after the nearly powerless Airbus A320 touched down in the river and everyone escaped. Federal aviation law requires that airports conduct an assessment of hazards from birds or other wildlife if planes have major collisions with animals. The assessment, which must be approved by FAA inspectors, serves as a guide for how the airport should deal with the wildlife. Airports use numerous techniques to remove birds. Air cannons or fireworks that make loud noises can be fired to scare birds away. Other solutions could be more subtle, such as keeping grass mowed around runways to make them less attractive to birds. "Airports and FAA are now working at the national and local levels to enhance their wildlife management programs and ensure full airport compliance," Oswald said. http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-06-04-airports-bird-strikes_N.ht m *************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC